Not All Who Wander Are Lost
by EmoCloud
Summary: Young Cloud watches people often... Many are boring everyday people but every once in a while someone intresting will come by. The dark cloaked man drew his intrest that night... He couldn't help but follow.
1. Chapter 1

It was a cold night and the boy didn't know what to do. He'd followed the man from the bar but had no idea how he was going to explain himself to the stranger. Should he tell the man the truth? Maybe he should lie to him? Maybe he should just ignore it. He was running out of time to find somewhere to stay the night. No! He had to tell the man. The man had saved his scrawny butt even if it was unintentional! He still had pride even if he was a pick pocket and homeless among other things.

The boy was contemplating what to do when all of a sudden the man ahead of him stopped and spoke. "What are you doing?" He asked. The boy looked around interested to see who he was talking to. The boy panicked when the man turned around and spoke again. "I asked you a question." He stated looking rather bored.

"Huh? Me?" The boy was surprised and panicked that the man had realized he'd been following him.

"Yeah you. I asked you a question." He said yet again seeming like this was normal.

"Uh...I-I was uh...following you." The boy answered quite lamely not able to think of a lie while staring into the blood red eyes of the other. His eyes were strangely tinted. They sort of glowed. Not that he could say he looked exactly normal. Not many people he'd ever met had had blonde hair or blue eyes. And he had both. Still this man ...There was something about him. Maybe it was his long black hair that hung so perfectly around him. Maybe it was the long cloak he wore that seemed to add on to his mysterious personality. The boy couldn't figure it out. He was just different.

"Is there something you want to say?" He asked this time seeming a 'lil more amused. The boy looked up and blushed realizing he'd been staring at the man. "Uh yeah you dropped these." The boy said slowly as he handed him a wallet and a cellphone.

"I didn't know I'd dropped these. Nor do I know how I could considering they were hooked to the inside of my cloak by a chain." The man said with a slight smirk. The boy blushed a 'lil bit now panicking again. "It's okay. I knew you took them. I also knew you were following me. Obviously." The man said with another of his little smirks.

"How did you know!" The boy asked feeling a 'lil annoyed now. He had pride and didn't like feeling like such a charity case. The man raised an eyebrow at the boy before speaking again.

"I could tell you were hungry and trying to get money for food so I waited for you to pass by and just sort of let you take it." The man said in a tone that the boy guessed was supposed to make him feel inferior.

"What's your name, sir?" the boy asked to change the subject. (Or maybe he just had ADHD)

"It's Vincent." The man said back in his bored tone. "And don't call me sir." He added.

"Alright sir...I mean uh Vinny." the boy said clumsily.

"Vincent not Vinny." The man said in an unfamiliar tone the boy guessed was probably an annoyed tone.

"Yes sir." The boy said, quickly changing to "I mean Vincent." when he saw the look on the mans face.

"Hey you little street urchin, shouldn't you be getting home? It's getting pretty late." Vincent said obviously wanting to get home himself.

"My name is Cloud." The boy said as he followed the man around a building. (Obviously he didn't get Vincent's clue to leave...) "Where are we going?" Cloud asked curiously.

"Home." Vincent said simply, not noticing the use of "we".

"Where's home?" cloud asked excitedly when Vincent said home. Vincent stopped. "Homes over- Wait. You are not coming home with me you little street urchin." Vincent said, slightly caught off guard.

"My names Cloud not Street urchin." Cloud said defensively.

"Whatever!" Vincent said annoyed, "Who names their daughter Cloud anyway!"

"I'M A BOY!" Clouds expression quickly dropped as he yelled. Vincent smiled a little

"I know. I'm just messing with you a bit." Vincent said and continued walking.

The boy feeling a little embarrassed about taking Vincent's bait so easily followed him a little slower now, trying to come up with a comeback when he realized that Vincent had stopped.

"Hey. I told you that you can't come home with me." Vincent said without looking back.

"I know..." Cloud slowly said. "I ..U-Uh live around here...!" He said quite lamely, still looking for an excuse to follow the strange man a little longer.

"I know you're lying." Vincent said, slightly scaring Cloud. Cloud being the lil' ADHD child he was decided the conversation was going all wrong and attempted a change."Sooo Vinny! Why ya comin' all the ways up here!" Cloud asked in his most childish, curious way, adding a huge last minute grin.

"How old are you?" Vincent asked just looking at Cloud with that same superiority complex on his face.

"Why? Cloud asked, curiosity tinged with suspicion.

"Well you see I'm guessing you're probably around ...nine and I wanted to see if I'm right." Vincent said with a smirk.

"WHAT! What the fuck?!" Cloud yelled deeply offended by this insulting comment. (even more so than being called a girl? Oh well he is quite pretty...)

"Am I mistaken?" Vincent asked sarcastically even more amused.

"I'M Fifte- I...I mean I'm twelve." Cloud lied with a seriously pissed look on his face.

All Vincent could manage to this little fact was "You're kidding, right?"

After a second of silence and clouds stubborn glare Vincent finally said "Fine. C'mon. Let's go." Then he turned and continued walking.

"G-Go where!" Cloud asked trying to keep up with Vincent's naturally smooth stride. (poor confused child...)

"Home. Follow me." Vincent said once again bored.

Cloud went into all sorts of fantasies of what home would be like and found himself smiling 'til he'd realized Vincent had stopped.

"Here we are." Vincent said looking down at Cloud. "Stay close. You're not supposed to be here." Vincent said with one last Smirk before heading into the house.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

The home they entered was alot different than Cloud had expected. It was a huge mansion with large statues and stairways and tapestries... Looking around he could see that the ceilings were at least fifty feet above him and there were small chandeliers leading through out the hallway. Even with all of the delicate and rich decor it felt a cold and foreboding home.

"Come on." Vincent said in a low grunt as he grabbed Clouds arm and led him quickly down the hall and up seven flights of stairs. The whole time Cloud tried to ignore the slight pain of Vincent's grip on his arm and turned his attention to checking out his surroundings and getting his bearings in case he needed to bolt. For it being such a fancy house it seemed oddly old and deserted. Everything seemed to be over a thousand years old and there seemed to be no life in the house other than himself and Vincent.

"Um Vinny?" Cloud said as they turned a corner.

"Shh! Questions can wait!" Vincent said as he checked down the hallway they were now walking down.

"Good everything's clear..." He said as he dragged Cloud to the end of the hallway and opened a book case. Behind the bookcase was a hidden door and a continuance of the hallway they were now leaving. Vincent closed the door and led Cloud down the somewhat darker hallway. After what seemed like forever, they stopped at a black door hidden behind a crimson curtain. Vincent got out a key, unlocked the door, and ushered Cloud in before entering the room himself and closing the door behind himself.

"Is this your room?" Cloud asked as he fell forward slightly. The room much like the curtains that had been draped in front of Vincent's door were also crimson. The floor was black oak as was the door and the bed in the corner of the room. Looking around Cloud realized just how little there was in the room. It wasn't very big yet the little amount of stuff in the room seemed to overcrowd it as it was. The bed seemed to take up a majority of the small space. His computer desk was the second largest piece of furniture in the room. There were two doors other than the one they entered on either side of the room. He also noted a small dresser crammed between Vinny's bed and one of the mystery doors.

"Yes." Vincent said as he moved toward the computer which was making a strange beeping noise. Vincent began typing and sat down in front of the computer leaving Cloud by the doorway. Cloud felt awkward, but decided that he shouldn't... After all Vincent had brought him here with little to almost no fuss at all. It was with that thought that he crawled up onto Vincent's bed and watched him type. He tried to sleep, but found it hard to do so in such a large bed. Years on the streets had made it difficult for him to sleep in the open. Taking another glance around the room he spotted a closet in the corner.

'Much better...' He thought as he nestled into the small dark room. It had been hard to get into due to the dresser almost overlapping the door, but Cloud reasoned it was worth it as he comfortably fell asleep.

Some time later, Cloud found himself waking up to the sound of Vincent pacing and muttering to himself different versions of equally painful ways of being killed. This worried Cloud seeing as Vincent had the look of a pissed off skunk. Definitely a dangerous thing... Skunks were a bad animal to piss off.

"Vinny wha's wrong?" Cloud asked as he peeked out the closet door. Vinny immediately turned toward the closet and threw the door completely open causing it to knock the dresser as well.

"What are you doing in there?" Vincent demanded with a cold glare.

"I was tired..." Cloud muttered rubbing his eyes.

"Then sleep in the bed." Vincent said darkly.

"Yur beds too big! I couldn't sleep! And you left me alone just so you could play on yur computer!" Cloud tried to stand his ground. The glare Vincent sent Cloud sent shivers down his spine.

"GET. OUT. OF. THAT. CLOSET. NOW. OR. ELSE." Vincent growled.

"Fine! I'm coming outta the closet!" Cloud yelled "I'm coming outta the closet just like ya wanted, happy now?!" Cloud yelled as he crawled out. He then noticed the blank look on Vincent's face. "Wha?" He asked

"Never say that again." Vincent said as he turned around and walked toward his bed.

"Wha?" Cloud asked confused.

"Never say you're coming out of the closet again..."

"Why not?" Cloud asked, a thoroughly confused look adorned his face as he sat on Vincent's bed.

"It's just not right." Vincent said in a rather matter of fact sort of way.

"Why come?" Cloud asked innocently.

"That's bad grammar." Vincent reprimanded.

"What is?" Cloud asked. Vincent just rolled his eyes and muttered a quiet 'never mind'.

"Just go to bed... Now." Vincent glared at Cloud with a slight forced grin.

"Ok...?" Cloud said questioningly moving back toward the closet. Vincent immediately grabbed his arm and stopped him and ordered him to sit on his bed. Cloud hesitantly did as he was told and lay back on the bed.

"Good. Now sleep." Vincent ordered as he moved toward the door.

"Where are ya going?" Cloud questioned curiously.

"Out..." Vincent muttered. "Now sleep." he ordered for the second time. Before Cloud could question him again Vincent was already out the door and gone. He raced to the door, but when he opened it, he found Vincent nowhere in sight. Sighing , he moved back to the bed and lay back down wondering were Vincent could have possibly gone.

Vincent slowly entered the sixth bedroom on the sixth floor of the moved toward a huge bed in the center of the room. It had many curtains draped from every angle so you couldn't see in. As Vincent stood next to the right side of the bed, he slowly peeled open the curtains.

What lay before him was a sickly looking boy of about sixteen. He had many iv's and large machines hooked up to him. His short, light blond hair was soiled by the blood that was smeared through it. His hands and wrists were also covered in blood. Vincent was used to this by now and didn't even care. He just moved closer to the boy and grabbed his hand to see how bad the damage was... Just nail scratches. He'd figured as much. After all, they'd taken away all sharp objects and he was getting too weak to pull out the iv's. As he moved toward a sink located in the corner of the room, the boy woke up, and began screaming.

Vincent walked back into his room about five hours later, locked the door, and moved toward his bed ready for a good nap, but froze mid-motion remembering his under guest. He swore under his breath as he moved toward the corner of the room where there other door led to his decent sized bathroom. He removed his jacket, shirt, boots, socks, and all his weapons except for the dagger at his ankle and the gun at his waist. H ewalked back out the bathroom and closed the door quietly behind him as he sank down in the corner. He stared across the room at the young stranger in his bed. He frowned as he noticed the boy was shaking. The boy was covered with all the blankets on the bed... so he couldn't be cold. As Vincent watched Cloud silently from the corner of the room, he noticed his face come out from under the covers, and watched with the frown still on his face as Cloud sat up slowly and looked around the room as if to get his bearings. It was then that his eyes fell upon Vincent.

"Yur back!" Cloud exclaimed as he jumped out of the bed, ran across the room, and threw his arms around Vincent. Vincent was about to yell at Cloud and pry the boy away from him, but stopped as he felt a warm wetness coming down his neck were Cloud had rested his face.

"Are you crying?" Vincent asked slightly confused. Cloud didn't answer and just squeezed Vincent harder.

"Why are you crying?" Vincent tried again with more authority in his tone.

Once again Cloud just ignored the question and squeezed tighter. This made Vincent mad until he noticed that Cloud was still shaking and that he was whimpering slightly. Shaking his head, he stood up with Cloud his arms, and moved toward the bed. He attempted to lay Cloud down and found that he wouldn't let go so he sat down on the bed and lay back with Cloud in his arms. After a while he noted that Cloud had stopped crying and shaking although the quiet whimpering continued. Petting Clouds hair, Vincent let himself relax too. He only meant to relax and didn't even realize until some time later that he'd fallen asleep.

**More to come as long as I get reviews ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Chapter 3

Vincent's POV

I didn't know how to feel about any of this. I felt sore everywhere, I was tired, and frustrated over all of the things that were piling up in my life. Reno ditching out on his duties to bother Rude on his weekend off with Cisseni, Rufus' constant attempts to hurt himself, the president constantly breathing down my spine about security, Tseng pushing shit on me, all of the new security recruits including that overzealous Zachariah Knightblade-Fair kid who was constantly breaking protocol, and now the mess of blonde hair nestled firmly against my chin… My life was just one frustration piled onto another, to put things lightly.

I didn't really mind sharing my bed with the small blonde, Cloud, but at the same time his presence left me ill at ease.

I knew Cloud was still lying about his age seeing as he had almost said he was fifteen before changing his answer. I had no clue why he'd want to claim to be younger, but it didn't bother me too badly. He was lean and kind of small, but definitely not the twelve year old he was claiming to be. His innocent looks didn't completely mask the light stubble growing on his chin or the slight build on his arms and chest. These things weren't obvious, but as he lay against me with his eyebrows drawn and mouth down in a frown I could tell he hid serious baggage under his sweet and goofy exterior.

I wondered idly what he was hiding underneath his act, but decided I didn't really want to know considering at the moment I probably couldn't handle much more stress. I had just decided to let myself go and accept extra stress again by taking in this stranger and letting myself sleep around him was oddly comforting. I should've felt more guarded, right? I was about to let sleep reclaim me when I heard a noise coming from down the hallway.

"Shit." I muttered quietly as I tried disentangle myself from Cloud. His limbs seemed to be impossibly tangled with mine, but I managed to quickly disentangle myself from him quietly without even waking him and move across the room toward the door. Cloud whimpered for a moment probably from the loss of contact, but I had no time to think about it as I drew the glock I kept at my waist. I stealthily opened the door without a sound and moved out into the hallway without a sound. The curtain swishing behind me seemed impossibly loud as I'd pushed through it, but the clumsy sounding figure moving down the hall ahead of me didn't seem to notice. The steps ahead of me didn't falter. I poised myself at the ready as I heard them rounding the corner toward me. I was about to strike when the person started whistling and I immediately recognized the whistle and features of my long time annoying 'friend' Reno.

"Damn it Reno." I growled as I smacked him upside the head.

"Agh, what the hell asshole!" Reno hissed rubbing the back of his head with surprise and annoyance. "Since when does coming to visit you earn me a pistol-whip to the back of the head?!"

"You were supposed to be out of town with Rude and Cisseni, remember? I had no reason to expect you and I was prepared for an intruder." I ground out irritated. I felt bad that I hadn't realized I'd smacked him with the same hand I was carrying my glock in, but it couldn't be helped now and I didn't feel like apologizing after I'd had to cover his shifts as well as mine for the last 4 days. I was on overload and in a bad mood to match.

"Well, Fuck man. Rude wanted me gone since I was keeping him from getting laid and I wanted to make sure you hadn't killed yourself with all your excessive responsibilities yo." Reno grouched right back at me.

"Who's fault do you think those extra duties are?" I practically growled fighting the urge to pistol whip him again… this time intentionally.

"Dude chill, Tseng overloads me all the time too. That's why I tried to take a mini vacation with my supposed friends before they ditched me to get down and dirty. I swear I need some action man. I'm getting tired of this third wheel shit yo. I need me some too, ya know?" Reno said, his words accompanied with his usual lewd gestures. "Besides, you don't do anything on your time off anyways, right yo?"

"Idiot. I'm going back to sleep." I stated and turned to head back to bed. I figured Reno would show himself out as he usually did when I didn't give him the attention he wanted, but instead I found myself being followed for the second time that night. First a strange blonde and now the familiar redheaded fool. I must've been getting soft if so many people felt comfortable to follow me so easily.

"What are you doing?" I asked letting my irritation coat my tone heavily as I turned to face Reno. To his credit he didn't flinch even with me toting my glock… hmm, I really must be getting soft. Back in my training days Reno would flinch at any sound of me being irritated… or maybe he'd developed masochistic tendencies.

"I told you, I'm bored yo." Reno shrugged as he strode past me towards my room. Shit.

I nonchalantly moved ahead of him to block access to my room. I didn't want him to find Cloud in my room… or my bed. I could imagine all of the crude remarks I would receive from Reno if he glimpsed the blonde tangled on my sheets. Reno was sadly probably the closest thing I had to a best friend, but that didn't mean I liked his knee jerk reactions or that loud mouth of his. I knew for certain that if he were to see Cloud my gloomy, dangerous reputation would be over with and I may as well start acting like Zachariah, the puppy boy. No way, was I going to let that happen.

"Reno." I practically growled. "I said I need sleep. You are not welcome right now." As if to assert my point I blocked my door and shoved him away a little roughly. "All because you felt like running off I am burnt out and can't handle your shit right now, got it?"

Reno stumbled back, but caught himself. I noticed in his stumble his left hand moved reflexively whipped out his electro-mag rod, he was well trained after all. His goofy mannerisms could turn deadly in seconds. I didn't let my face betray my unease at his reaction. I didn't usually resort to physical means to deter him from something, not since training anyways, our relations since then had changed to something less hostile after all. As he straightened back up, he frowned and seemed slightly perturbed by my actions but he quickly put the rod away with a slow grin letting his carefree re-take his facial features. My relief was mixed with unease from that grin… that grin always spelled trouble for me.

"What you hiding yo? You only get this rough when you're up to shit." Reno's laugh was loud and I heard rustling coming from within my room. I cringed as his laughter cut off immediately and he let a victorious grin slip onto his face showing he'd heard the unusual nose emitting from my room as well. I was caught.

"So did you sneak in a pet or a girlfriend?" Reno asked with a suggestive eyebrow waggle and a ludicrous grin that made his face look as though it was going to split in half.

"Neither." I groused, but I moved out of the way so he could peek into the room. "Don't be to loud, don't want you to wake-"

"You mean both! I see some cute blonde is all comfy in the great Vinny Valentine's bed!" Reno grinned wildly and I could tell Reno was going to get louder, sighing I pulled him back and closed the door as I did so. I leaned back against a wall.

"He followed me home Reno. What was I supposed to do?" I suddenly wished I smoked… Reno stressed me out easily.

"Well, you could have- wait! 'the fuck? Did you say he?!" Reno's jaw dropped, his eyes comically round and I almost laughed, but then the door opened quietly behind him. Cloud stood there staring between us nervously.

"Vinny…sorry to bother you, but your computer kept beeping…and I-" Cloud fidgeted as he spoke and I felt bad as I pushed past him to my monitor to answer the call. Only 3 people contacted me that way and ignoring anyone of them would cause me nothing, but trouble.

**After much deliberation I decided to continue this story. If you like this ficcie, let me know and I will continue. The next chapter will be longer and include gratuitous smut if I you're nice ;)**


End file.
